Senior Israeli government ministers warn Netanyahu has “no mandate” to end Gaza war, lay out red lines which could lead to toppling the coalition.
By World Israel News Staff
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition partners have warned that they could bolt the government, potentially forcing new elections, if Netanyahu accepts a deal with Hamas proposed by President Donald Trump which would mandate an end to the war in Gaza and a full IDF withdrawal.
Netanyahu is slated to meet with Trump in the White House Monday afternoon, for talks which are expected to center around the administration’s new 21-point plan.
The proposal calls for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and the release of the remaining 48 Israeli hostages, in exchange for the freeing of between 100 to 200 high-profile Arab terrorists held in Israeli prisons.
In addition, Israel would commit to a staggered withdrawal from Gaza, while a new administrative force is formed to police the coastal enclave.
While some in the Israeli government, including Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, have embraced the proposal, the American plan has rankled some of Netanyahu’s right-wing allies.
Already frustrated by Trump’s rejection last week of Israeli plans to extend sovereignty over parts of Judea and Samaria, ministers including National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich have warned Netanyahu they could resign if Netanyahu agrees to a full IDF withdrawal from Gaza.
On Saturday night, Ben-Gvir tweeted that Netanyahu does not have a “mandate” to prematurely end the war.
“Mr. Prime Minister, you do not have a mandate to end the war without the total defeat of Hamas.”
Even if Ben-Gvir did quit the government however, Netanyahu would still have majority support in the Knesset
In January, Ben-Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit party bolted the coalition over the six-week ceasefire deal with Hamas, only to return in March once hostilities were resumed.
However, without the seven MKs in Smotrich’s Religious Zionist Party, Netanyahu’s government would either collapse, or be kept on life-support without a majority government, relying on a parliamentary safety net provided by Opposition lawmakers backing the hostage deal.
On Monday, Smotrich penned a Facebook post laying out his party’s six red lines which would lead to their withdrawal from the government.
Israel, Smotrich said, must not agree to any deal which would leave Hamas in power in Gaza, or leave its terrorist infrastructure intact, including the group’s remaining underground networks.
The IDF “must remain permanently in the perimeter” of Gaza – referring to the buffer zone established inside the Strip near the Israeli frontier, as well as in the Philadelphi Corridor, the strategic area separating Gaza from the Egyptian-held Sinai.
Furthermore, Smotrich wrote, there can be “no involvement of the Palestinian Authority in Gaza, not today and not in the future, neither explicitly nor implicitly.”
Netanyahu must not sign any deal which mentions or implies any potential future establishment of a Palestinian state, nor can any such deal permit Qatari involvement in the post-war Gaza Strip.
“It is time to end Qatar’s hypocrisy and double standards — Qatar encourages and finances terror and runs Al Jazeera, one of the most powerful engines of false, anti-Jewish propaganda against Israel.”
“We will not interfere with our American friends’ relationships and dealings with Arab states, but as far as Israel and Gaza are concerned, Qatar must be ostracized on moral grounds.”
Smotrich also insisted that a ceasefire deal must retain key elements of President Trump’s February 2025 Gaza migration plan, adding that Egypt must provide migrants passage out of Gaza via the Sinai Peninsula.
“Gaza will no longer be a prison where people are held by force in an illegal and immoral way merely to harm the State of Israel. Those who want to leave will be able to exit the Strip by land through Egypt and continue their lives elsewhere if other places agree to accept them.”
In his post, Smotrich wrote that he “made it clear” to Netanyahu that his party “will not compromise on” any of the six red lines.
The post Israeli ministers threaten to topple Netanyahu government over Trump’s Gaza deal appeared first on World Israel News.